


Just One Thing

by AlwaysEroticWrestling, ThisGuyFvcks



Category: All Elite Wrestling, Being The Elite (Web Series), Professional Wrestling, Ring of Honor, 新日本プロレス | New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Genre: Christmas Magic, Current timeline, Fluff, IT'S CHRISTMAS BITCHES, Kayfabe Compliant, Light Angst, M/M, Softness, bte compliant, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:27:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21642184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlwaysEroticWrestling/pseuds/AlwaysEroticWrestling, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisGuyFvcks/pseuds/ThisGuyFvcks
Summary: It's almost Christmas.Adam Page is stuck in a Chicago airport. He's alone. It's late. And it's one bad night among several bad months.Either way, it seems he's due for a good turn. Luck, fate, or maybe a little holiday spirit gives him a second chance he never thought he'd get.--What do you want from me? It's time for Christmas fluff. I love this ship and will die on this hill.
Relationships: Adam Page/Marty Scurll
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	1. Joy to the World

“Well. This...Kinda sucks.” It had been a really rough few months, and that mouthy dick had embarrassed him on national television again...But he was still living the dream, and it could be worse. Adam tried not to let it weigh on him. Even as he stood there, in front of those giant airport windows, watching the fury of large white flakes whirl with enough intensity that he couldn’t even see out into the black night beyond. He took a breath, and he felt the cold even from this side of the glass.

At least the snow was pretty, he guessed. Even if his connecting flight was currently, definitely delayed, and very probably, absolutely canceled.   
It was Chicago in December and these things did happen. He let his forehead thunk against the glass. It was cold. He closed his eyes. The snow was pretty. But he was very, very aware of how alone he was.

It sucked. He tugged his Carhartt coat tighter around his shoulders and all but melted in one of the corner seats at his gate. For the next hour, he thumbed through his phone. Normally in a situation like this, he’d be texting one of the boys. Cody would still probably be up, doing whatever it was he was always doing after midnight. But he hadn’t heard much from Cody lately either. 

For an hour, Page just pretended to read news stories as he watched flight after flight get delayed and then fully canceled on the display. Eventually, the announcement came, and he sighed.   
The storm was getting much worse and nothing was leaving the ground until at least late morning. They did mention hotel vouchers, and while he had half a mind to just sit there and suffer in the chair, after the last few days he’d had a real bed was pretty tempting. So he went to get in line with all of the other weary travelers. His boots were heavier than he could remember feeling them.

Even with the tinsel and mistletoe and non-denominational holiday decor, the airport still felt cold and sterile. He’d been in line for maybe four minutes when he felt something tugging on his sleeve.

“Excuse me, young man.” Adam turned to the small voice behind him.   
The woman was bundled in a coat so thick it made her head and shoulders into one round shape. Her hood was pulled tight around her round, wrinkled face, but her eyes shone bright and there was a pinkness to her cheeks. “This is the line for the hotel vouchers, yes…?”  
Adam couldn’t help but smile, regardless of how sorry for himself he felt.

“Yes ma’am,” he nodded. She had several bags of luggage with her, some standing almost as tall as her five foot at best stature. 

“Oh, good. These old dogs can’t scoot around like they used to, y’know.” She leaned on the handle of her rolling bag like a cane and seemed to appraise the man before her.  
“Your hair is absolutely lovely. Gold curls.”   
Adam wasn’t ever quite sure what to say to that, but he did put the phone he’d been holding into his pocket out of politeness. 

“Thank you… I got ‘em from my mom…Do you mind if I get some of those for you?” She’d put her bags down, only to need to pick them up any time the line scooted forward. 

“Oh, that would be wonderful. Thank you…” The relief in her voice made Adam wish he’d noticed her sooner, as he gathered her bags with his own. It wasn’t much to swing her duffel over his shoulders and place a second back on top of his rolling luggage.

“My Roger had hair like that. He kept it short, though…” She let out a wistful sigh and held out a hand. “Goodness. I am so sorry, here I am talking your ear off and I didn’t even introduce myself. I’m Joy…” She held out a bony hand with a couple of simple rings on it. Adam took it gently and shook it.

“I’m Adam. And it’s very nice to meet you, Joy.” 

“Adam. My, that’s a strong name. Suits you.” She held his hand in both of hers for a moment and he could feel a slight shake in them. “That is some weather out there, isn’t it…?”  
Adam, for the first time since she met him, remembered his travel plight. He sighed.   
“Yeah. It’s something.”  
Joy hummed and let her hands return to her roller handle.

“I am going to see my great-granddaughter. She’s going back to Oxford after Hanukkah. You look like you might’ve been in a hurry to get where you were headed… Got someone waiting for you?”

The question made his brow furrow.   
“No. It’s just… It’s for work,” Adam put on a smile, but he could sense that she was seeing through him.  
The line moved up a few more feet and they shuffled along and situated it. 

“That’s a shame. The holidays can be difficult... But, I’ve only known you a few minutes, and I can tell that with your heart you’ve people that are missing you.”   
Adam just nodded and turned as they continued moving.   
He didn’t think so. He hadn’t done a very good job of being a friend or team-player or anything lately. And maybe they hadn’t either, he thought, bitterness blooming briefly in the back of his mind again. Being alone sure hadn’t been the party he’d thought it’d be though.

They handed him a ticket with a key card and he walked toward the gate.  
“Sorry ma’am, that’s it for now. They’re arranging a shuttle to a hotel across town, but it’s going to be a few hours.”   
Adam froze and did a u-turn.

“Hey, hey, hold on.” Joy was already about to shuffle back the way she’d come.   
“Take my room. I’m probably not going to get much sleep, and I insist.” He was already grabbing her things up again. “I’ll walk you to it, Joy.”  
The exhaustion that’d been clear in her eyes faded.

“See?” She gripped his arm in her hand. “That’s what I said. You’ve got a wonderful heart, young man, and you hold onto it.”  
He escorted her and her things, going at her pace, over the skywalk to the connected hotel. The snow was really coming down now, enough to diffuse the light into a glow over the whole place. They talked quite a bit about her family as they did, and she asked him a little about work and his personal life but was happy to change the subject whenever Adam clammed up.

“I think this is it,” he nodded to the door that mirrored the number on the key card.  
Joy stopped in front of it with a tired sigh of relief and Adam opened it up.

“Where did you want these?”   
“Anywhere is just fine. Thank you again, dear. For the bags… And the company, and everything.”  
Adam put her things at the end of the bed and turned to the doorway.

“You’re very welcome. Have a safe trip, and say Happy Hanukkah to that great grand-daughter to me, okay?”

“Hold on. Hold on…” She rummaged through her purse.  
“Oh no, no don’t do that,” Adam put out a hand to stop her. “Really. I’m happy to do it.”  
She sighed and went for a different pocket.

“That giving spirit. That’s really what the holidays are about, you know. Whichever one you like… At least take these.” She pulled out a Ziploc bag of red and green hard candies. “Smuggled them through security,” she gave him a mysterious wink and handed him the bag. Then she reached up and gently prodded him in the chest with her index finger. “And you keep that good heart, boy.”

“Alright. Thank you…” Adam graciously took the unconventional treats and slipped them into his pocket.

“I’m told they taste like Christmas,” she informed him. “Not my cup of tea, exactly, but I think everyone could use a dose of the holidays now and then. It’s...A good reminder to have a little faith. Doesn’t exactly matter in what. Just. Have a little faith.”

He quirked a smile as she shuffled around the room and nodded understanding.

“I better get heading back. Maybe I’ll get a little of that holiday luck and this storm’ll break before too long. It was great meeting you, Joy.” She shrugged her oversized coat into the chair and turned back around as he said his goodbyes.

“That’s the spirit, sweetie. I hope you find a warm place and good company to spend them with.” She walked him over to the door with her slow shuffle and waved him off.  
“Me too,” he mumbled, to the shut door.


	2. Christmas (Please come home.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I ain't about to write no Marty Scurll fic without singing.

The walk back down the hotel hallway was much longer than the walk in had been. Halfway through, Adam realized he wasn’t really walking toward anything anyway. With Joy gone he was left to himself again. And that was enough to make him suddenly very, very tired. His duffel bag slid off his shoulder and he let it sit there. Then he put his back to the wall and slid down to the floor.

None of it was ever supposed to go this way. Even if he did need some time, he never should’ve cut the others out like that. They were his friends, through rough patches and bad luck and everything else. And even though they were softly piping Christmas music through the hallways, he couldn’t really bring himself to call anyone.

He shifted around when his toes started to go numb, and the ziploc bag of candy fell out of his pocket. Almost as an afterthought, he popped one into his mouth. Maybe the sugar would keep him from passing out in the hallway.   
Warmth and mint and something that he suspected was rum flooded his mouth as he continued to idly stare down at his screen, desperate for any kind of distraction. 

It must’ve worked, because he didn’t even hear the door next to him opening. He didn’t hear the person coming out or stumbling over his duffle bag either. The shadow loomed over him just briefly before he heard the startled yelp. Adam looked up, but it was too late. A full grown person was crashing down in his lap with enough force to briefly stun him.

Adam came back to the similarly stunned figure scrambling in a tangle of limbs and luggage.  
“ Surry-”  
“Sorry-” They spoke at the same time, Adam with his hand on the man’s back trying to right him. His cheeks were already starting to burn with embarrassment at having caused this. The man finally looked to the side to see who’s lap he’d landed in, and everything stopped.

There was no mistaking the face just inches from his. He’d traveled the world with that smiling face. It’d been almost a year but he hadn’t forgotten any of it. By the recognition in his eyes, he hadn’t forgotten Adam either. But that was hardly the point...

“Adam…?” Time continued as scheduled, and Marty scrambled out of Adam’s lap and landed on his ass. He recoiled, until his back pressed against the wall opposite Adam. His face paled.   
He looked like he’d seen a ghost. Adam probably looked the same, because he definitely had. Marty Scurll was dead. He’d mourned him. And tried to keep moving so that he could, maybe, move on. He was supposed to be gone. And yet, there he was. 

Adam sat up to his knees and almost reached a hand out before he caught what he was doing and pulled it back.  
“Marty. Hey- I…”   
What could he say? He’d gotten in three words before he felt breathless. And Marty looked…Terrified. And that made any of the excitement that’d surged in his chest before his head caught up fall flat.   
Marty, once he stopped staring at Adam, just looked around, like he was trying to sort where he was. 

“You can’t be.” Marty shook his head, and closed his eyes, like he was trying to will Adam’s appearance away. It stung. Adam opened his mouth-  
“You’re supposed to be dead.” Marty cut him off. “Wait, am -I- dead?” He touched his chest.   
Adam didn’t respond. But it did make him think. Maybe he was dead. Maybe he’d died here, in the airport hotel, in the hallway. Maybe that old woman and her candy had killed him, and she was going to rifle through his things and he was doomed to wander the airport his entire afterlife and-  
Marty was here, too. Adam licked his lips. They seemed corporeal. If he had died. If he was now here, passed, dead and gone. Maybe that was alright. Or at least not all that bad.  
“No,” Adam finally answered, decidedly. “No, I don’t think so…” This wasn’t a conversation for the hotel hall floor. Adam pulled himself to his feet and then held out a hand for Marty. After a moment of deliberation, Marty cautiously took it. It was warm and real enough. Adam pulled him up, and for several seconds the two regarded one another at full height. “...T’s…. good to see you.”  
Marty was still darting his eyes down the hallway. “...The Bucks here? Kenny...Cody?...” His voice was a little rougher than it usually was, like his throat was still tight.  
“Oh. No...They’re probably all back home by now.” Adam took a breath to get ready to apologize, because, yeah, of course Marty would be excited to see the others. 

He didn’t even get the ‘sorry’ out before he was almost knocked back down, this time by Marty’s arms wrapped tight around his neck in an embrace that had the shorter man on his toes.  
“I missed you, mate.” Adam felt it against his skin and it was his turn to struggle with a tight throat. He enveloped Marty’s waist in squeeze that he was sure he lifted a few inches off the ground. 

“Missed you, too.” A lot. Enough that seeing him here again, of all damned places, made his chest kind of hurt. He didn’t know exactly how long they’d hugged there, just that when Marty pulled away the air felt colder.

“Sorry you tripped over my stuff,” he cleared his throat sheepishly.   
Marty blinked, looked at the bags all over the ground, and let out a full chain of chuckles.   
“I’m absolutely not. I don’t know what’s going on but… It’s been too long since I’ve seen a truly friendly face. What were you doing out here in the hallway?” He quirked sharply angled eyebrow at the blonde cowboy.

“Oh.” Adam took a breath. “It may take a moment to explain…”  
“Well. I was heading out to try to find something to eat other than airplane peanuts that I nicked off the flight, if you want t’ walk over with me?”   
“Absolutely.” Adam’s stomach growled in agreement. Dead people didn’t get hungry, right? That was a good sign then.

They headed out of the hotel, and Adam explained how he’d gotten stranded, and caught Marty up a little bit on what was happening with the others as well.   
“It always worries me when Kenny’s cracked,” Marty said. “He really knows how to find a rail and jump it, yeah?” Adam nodded profoundly.

“Oh yeah. It’s going to get weird.”   
Though, perhaps not any weirder than this. 

Marty recounted what he’d been up to as well. Adam was particularly surprised by his association with Flip, and maybe also a little unreasonably annoyed in a way he didn’t care to explore further at the moment.

The skywalk was abandoned now. They were the only souls in sight and it seemed to stretch on, the little light tracks overheard mimicking an airport runway to guide them across.   
The snow was swirled without discernible direction overhead.  
Marty slowed his steps some to look at it.

“Looks like we’re in a snowglobe.”  
“Yeah. It definitely does…” Marty looked up for some time, but after a few seconds admiring the white stuff, Adam’s attention was drawn elsewhere. 

Marty was grinning from ear to ear. His eyes caught the overhead lights and sparkled warmth. He turned back to Adam and it was like a beam that made his stomach flop.   
“C’mon then, Hangman. You’ve got that look about you. Need a cup of coffee before you fall absolutely over.” Marty bumped his shoulder briefly before picking up the pace. Adam was left a few feet behind and had to use his full long-legged strides to make up the difference.

The airport terminal itself was also a ghost town. Even the 24 hour shops had shut down, presumably due to the blizzard outside. The thoughts of being in some sort of purgatory of course came back to Adam, but it was pretty easy to push those aside again when Marty seemed to be in good spirits. Outside of the two of them, the only sign of life at all was the Christmas music echoing out through the wide lobby. He could hear Marty humming along.

“I like this one,” Adam said, watching Marty out of the corner of his eyes.  
“Me too,” Marty agreed.   
He hadn’t bought the bait yet, so Adam took a breath.

_“Christmas,”_ he sung along quietly, _“Snow’s comin’ down…”_ That had Marty’s head turning. _“Christmas...They’re watchin’ it fall…”_ Adam definitely wasn’t a pop star. But he could sing along a little bit. He tucked his head and lifted his eyebrows at Marty, gently egging him on.

“No.. No c’mon-”  
_“Lots of pe-ople around,”_ Adam continued. Both of them laughed at that, considering it was absolutely incorrect. _“...Baby please come home…”_ The last line he said a little more quietly. It still had the desired effect when Marty shut his eyes tight.

_“They’re singin’ ‘Deck the halls’- But it’s not like Christmas at-ahul.”_ His rough-edged accented voice echoed off the tiled floor in the dead-empty terminal.  
 _“'Cause I remember when you were here…”_ He pointed a finger at Adam as he twirled, and Adam was God-damned delighted. _“And all the fun we had last year… Pretty lights on the tree!”_  
_“Christmas-,”_ Adam took up singing the background track as Marty got progressively more into his impromptu performance.   
_“Oh, I’m watchin’ ‘em shine!” _  
Adam liked his singing. Honest and earnestly. Moreover, he liked how he sang rather than how _well_ he sang, he supposed. Marty was earnest and lyrics were just a suggestion. It didn’t matter how it sounded. Not to Adam. It mattered how it felt. And Adam liked how it felt. __

___“You should be here with me.”_ Well. Mostly, Adam liked Marty.   
Neither of them got through the rest of the song without giggling, and Adam knew he hadn’t felt this light in a very long time.  
“You should do a Christmas album. I’d buy it,” he said, as they fell back into the pattern of their search.  
Marty laughed._ _

__“I’m serious! I like it!” Adam obstinately insisted.  
“Handsome Hangman Page, my number one and coincidentally only fan. S’pose I could do worse.” A small, lighted room next to an abandoned Starbucks came into view. “Ah! There we go!” A row of vending machines and an automated coffee dispenser seemed to be their only saving grace.  
Marty went straight for the coffee with his cash, while Adam shopped the picked-over machines’ combination of toiletries, condoms, and packaged snacks. _ _

__“Oh. Hey!” He called over to Marty, who was currently bringing him a styrofoam cup that was far too small to look normal in Adam’s hands. “We are in luck. They got stuff from our favorite Japanese restaurant.”  
Marty passed him the cup and looked through the glass. _ _

__“Oh. Yeah,” he observed, deadpan. The row of Loaded Potato Skin chips from TGIFridays was full. Eventually the absurdity got to him, and Marty laughed. He did absolutely put a fiver into the slot though, selecting two bags and the last remaining sleeve of Rolos.  
He collected the snacks and looked up. “How’s the coffee?”_ _

__Adam took another sip and nodded pleasantly.  
“It’s. Terrible.” He admitted. But he took another sip anyway. He didn’t expect airport machine coffee to have much in the way of standards. Besides, it gave the warmth that he’d felt in his stomach a reason to be there. “Thanks.”   
“Not a problem. Dinner is on me, seeing as how well I’ve been doing.” Marty led the way to one of the tables in the cafe and dropped their small horde onto it.  
“Two crisp packets and some chocolates.”  
Adam whistled.  
“Fine dining, for sure.”   
“Listen, I go all out for my dates n mates,” Marty opened one packet, then the other, presenting it to the blonde. Their fingers brushed for a second, and it was a silly thing for Adam to be caught up on, seeing as how much skin on skin contact they’d shared in the past, but here he was, feeling electric all the same.  
“That so? Well, excuse my blush.” He crunched a potato chip. It was very much unlike ordering from the menu. But he was hungry, and it would work.   
“It’s a nice blush. Charming. The crisp crunching doesn’t take away from it at all,” Marty popped a chocolate in his mouth in what Adam could only guess was an attempt at keeping a straight face.  
It was odd, the guessing. He couldn’t ever really tell if Marty was seriously flirting, or if Adam was just reading that accent in all the wrong ways. He found himself stuck in that same loop again, just awkwardly laughing and distracting himself with their makeshift meal. They caught up a little bit more. Adam mentioned that he was, honestly, a little worried that this was they end of the little group they’d both been welcomed into. Marty, even though he’d been gone for over a year, seemed to have more confidence that it would endure. That everyone could be at odds but that they’d eventually get sorted out somehow.   
Adam believed him.   
“Alright cowboy.” Marty slid out of the metal stool. “I’m getting pretty knackered. Ready to head back to mine?”  
They’d shared spaces on the road before. Rooms. Beds. A toothbrush, on one desperate occasion.   
“Yeah, I think I’m gettin’ pretty ‘knackered’ myself.” It was never uncomfortable. But, often, when it was just them, there would be that one moment or two could’ve gone another way. Moments that Adam had looked back on and wondered.   
“It sounds weird when you say it,” Marty teased, walking right in line with Adam back toward the skywalk that led to the hotel. They were close enough that their shoulders brushed every few steps, but neither of them moved to correct their trajectory.  
“T’s all a bit weird, innit? I’ve never seen an empty airport.” Marty’s smile let up some, and there was a soberness about him.  
“...Yeah,” Adam admitted, as they came upon the warm white glow of the skywalk again. That thought he’d pushed to the back of his mind came wandering back and he’d felt his throat tighten.   
“But it’s...Alright, I think,” Marty seemed to decide, turning to Adam with an even expression. He didn’t get to see him serious very often. Even when they were competing Marty kept upbeat and comical. “Whatever it is, I mean. “  
“Yeah.” Adam blinked threatening wetness out of his eyes. “Yeah, it’s alright, Marty.”  
Marty’s smile returned at that.  
“Well. Let’s go then.” They fell in step together, but this time Marty looped an arm through his. It fit really well. Adam definitely took his time as they walked back over the illuminated skywalk, arm in arm under a blanket of snow above them, but even with the slow pace, the end came eventually. The tunnel that opened out into the hallway lobby loomed just ahead. But even now, looking at it for the third time today, it was different.   
Adam would bet anything that the giant bough of ribboned mistletoe hadn’t been hanging there before. He stopped them completely before they passed the threshold.  
“Hold on. Just…” He took a breath. Marty looked up at him, his head tilted curiously.   
There was so much he wanted to say. So much he needed to after so damned long. Adam couldn’t recall any of it. _ _

__Instead he grabbed Marty by his shirt and yanked him close against him._ _


	3. Silent Night

When their lips touched Adam didn’t see stars. He didn’t feel like he was floating.  
He just felt Marty pressed against him, presumably pretty confused for a moment before he caught on and turned into the kiss. It felt like junior high.  
Only he felt the rough tickle of a beard against his chin, and that had certainly been new. And then a hand tangled in his hair and pulled him deeper into the kiss. And he could taste chocolate and caramel and… the salt and fake cheese of those stupid chips. 

And it was perfect. Somewhere along the way he had shut his eyes and he didn’t open them again until Marty pulled away enough to draw in a quick breath.  
“Oh.” Marty breathed. 

“... Waited a few years to do that.”

“Well. You shouldn’t have.” This time Marty tugged him down for a kiss, and it was slower. Thorough. Like he was taking his time to hit notes he’d considered for a while. It was harder to pull away this time.

“Uh. Duly noted,” Adam muttered, lips still tingling.  
Adam still stood there, half stunned, and Marty stepped off the skywalk.

“Hurry up. We’ve got time to make up for.” Marty didn’t vanish into mist, and Adam didn’t wake up in the hallway out of fever delusion. So the only thing left was to follow behind the Brit, hoping the trip to his hotel room went quicker than their little airport excursion. 

They paused only to gather Adam’s luggage that was left behind, forgotten in their reunion, and toss it haphazardly on the room floor. Adam had more important things to lift. His hands fit at Marty’s waist, and that was the only cue he needed to wrap his legs around Adam’s hips.  
It was a position they’d taken before, under very different circumstances, and certainly without taking turns peppering one anothers’ cheeks with desperate kisses. All those exchanged glances and lost moments. Things not spoken out of embarrassment. Or fear. Pressure, to keep things as they were between their close-knit group of friends.

All that fell away, just as easily as articles of clothing at roving fingers.   
Adam came to the stark realization that here they were, already so intimately familiar, even with this new context. He didn’t have to second guess when to lift his arms so Marty could ruck his shirt up over his head, or worry about letting him drop wrong on the mattress while he kicked out of his jeans. 

He got to admire the flush that bloomed over Marty’s chest from passion instead of being smacked around with a chair. Likewise, Adam became decorated in purple splotches courtesy of a Villain’s lips rather than someone’s blows. 

Sleep became a powerful adversary when his adrenaline took a nose dive. His heart-beat had barely returned to normal when Adam felt his eyelids getting leadened. 

He fought it, stubborn as hell, but quietly. Marty’d already drifted off, one arm slung around his chest and his nose brushing up against his neck. Adam would’ve followed him into this blissful state just like the last, if he hadn’t been so worried that if he closed his eyes for even a second it’d all be gone.

But it’d been a long day, and to say he was running off fumes would’ve been generous. He was on the wrong side of the morning. And he was warm. And he was sinking and floating all at once. 

When he opened his eyes, the hotel room was illuminated solely from a crack in the curtains. He sat up in the bed and blinked against the harsh light and came to a harsher realization.   
He was alone. 

It felt like a wrecking ball hit him square in the chest. Like a dozen chops from Kenny all at once. He couldn’t breathe. He sunk back down into the mattress and vaguely wished it’d just suffocate him. He didn’t even have the will to grab a pillow and help it along, though.   
Is that what he got? One night? Seemed more like a bitter curse than a blessing. He scrubbed a hand over his face, torn over wanting the evening before to fade away like a dream and desperately needing to hold every moment close. 

“Oh good, you’re up.”

Adam paused and peered over the top of his comforter coffin. Marty looked at him through the doorway, a few stacked take out containers balanced on his arm. His hair was back up in it’s tight top-knot and he had gotten properly dressed and put together. Showered, awake. Most importantly, alive and very much present. “Tried to wake you but you sleep like the dead.”   
Adam laughed weakly. 

“Ha. Dead. Yeah.”   
“You… Alright mate?” Marty put the things down on the table, but cautiously stayed next to the door. 

Adam took one look at his face and realized that his very large boot was about to choke his dumb cowboy ass. Probably not the best thing move to act skittish after… Well. After all that the night before. 

“Yeah! Hey, no - I just- “ He tried to make it out of the comforter but it was a close fight and he stumbled. “M’real glad you’re here’s all,” he assured him. Marty let out a relieved breath.   
“Good. I didn’t know if you were…. Cutting or bulking...So. I brought you an egg white omelette and a BLT with extra B.” 

“You’re pretty,” Adam responded, an automatic response to being brought food, maybe, but an honest one none the less. “Handsome. Both,” he amended. “Uh.”

A loud buzzing replied before Marty could, and Adam was briefly thankful for it before he realized his phone was calling out from the pocket of the pants he’d abandoned on the floor.   
He picked it up, realizing too late that it was indeed a video call. 

“Whoa, Page.” Nick Jackson’s face lit up the screen and Adam rapidly changed the angle of his phone. The other hand scrambled for the comforter he’d almost tripped in. 

“Uh, hey,” was his articulate response as the other view zoomed out and Matt joined his brother on screen.

“We were just- We saw the snow in Chicago and we hadn’t heard from you,” Matt said. That mischievous glint in his eyes told Adam that this situation clearly was amusing him.  
“Yeah. We just wanted to make sure you were alright. All things y’know.” Nick bumped his brothers shoulder and swallowed a snicker.

“Uh. Right.” Adam would’ve been really touched if all of his energy hadn’t been focused on feeling awkward and embarrassed. “I’m good. I mean, I’m snowed in at the airport hotel but-”

“‘Issat the Bucks?” Marty piped up, before coming around to look over his shoulder to confirm his assumption.

The look on their face was pretty much priceless, even if Adam could feel his own tensing up slightly.  
“Holy. Shit. Marty?” Matt was the first to speak.   
Marty waved.

“It’s been forever. How’re you guys…?”   
Adam bundled his comforter more tightly around himself with his phone-free hand. Silly, considering how very often the Bucks had seen his business in the locker-room, but the situation warranted it.

“Page, that’s Marty!”   
Adam nodded and shrugged, figuring it was better to let them compute through it on their own.

“Explain’s the hair,” Nick muttered to his brother, loud enough for all of them to hear.

Now it was Adam’s turn to be confused. He looked up, giving the mirror above the dresser an initial glance.   
“Horseshit…” He cursed to himself, quite outloud by mistake. His hair was all kinds of everywhere. Loud chuckling emanated from his phone and he sighed.

“G’bye Bucks, later Bucks,” He said, ignoring the chorus of ‘waits’ amid the laughter as he disconnected them. He dropped the phone face down on the bed’s end and looked at Marty.   
“I was thinkin’...”

“Oh?”

“Think we can get away with missing a few more flights?”

“I’m a Villain, Adam,” Marty reminded with a scoff. “I can get away with anything.”


End file.
